We had a glorious rainstorm last night—the desert kind, with thunder and torrents and all. It’s still drizzling a little today but mostly the storm part is over. I love rainstorms. Maybe it’s because I grew up here, in the desert, and I just don’t see rain often enough. It seems to me that, unless the rain has ruined something important I’ve planned, I never feel like rainstorms last long enough. I always, always want more.
When I was a nanny in Pennsylvania (yes, I did that—did you know?) I encountered some Real Rainstorms. There’s nothing like a rainstorm back east, where the water comes down in buckets for hours and hours! Once I ran out and drenched myself to celebrate—and was surprised to discover that, unlike what happens here, when you drench yourself in a rainstorm back east you don’t get any COOLER. You just get wetter. It was really strange. Since it’s always humid there, the rain doesn’t feel any different than the wet air, really. Just wetter.
Anyway, I always want more rain.
Which has got me thinking about other things that I always want more of. Here’s a not-completely-inclusive list:
1. Truffles de France.
2. Education
3. Length of time in a nap. No kidding. It doesn’t matter how long I sleep, I always feel like I could have slept longer.
4. Songs on my Noteworthy Ladies album.
5. Popcorn at movie theaters.
6. Zerbits on P’s belly-button.
7. Jane Austen novels.
8. General Conference. I really do feel sad when it ends.
9. BYU. (Probably related to #2 above, but not necessarily.)
10. Time with my AML and Segullah friends.
11. Eating out.
12. Road trips.
13. Backrubs from hubby.
14. Free time in which I am not sleepy.
15. Grins, chuckles and all-out belly laughs from my kids.
There’s a part in C. S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet (I think—it’s one of the books in that trilogy) in which the protagonist tastes some very amazing fruit. When he’s finished it his instinct is to reach for another one. Then he stops himself, feeling that it would be somehow immoral to take more than he needs. This part speaks to me because I know that instinct to always want more of a good thing. I like to imagine it’s biological, a sort of leftover from hunter-gatherer days. Maybe, though, it’s just an inheritance of the Natural Man. Whatever it is, I believe I should fight it, or rather live in tension with it (the way you use the tension of your legs against the water to keep you up when you waterski). Moderation is really one of the highest virtues, I believe. My yoga/meditation practice has helped me with this, as has my illness. I hope I can keep my more moderate habits intact as my body gets stronger and its old appetites return in full force.
So . . . what kinds of things do you feel like you could never get enough of?
2 comments:
1. time alone (my hubby gets offended sometimes because the only gift I usually want is a BREAK. from everything and everyone. poor guy.)
2. shopping with mom
3. water skiing (my poor muscles only last one or two times on the water and I have to stop.)
4. accessories. love them. rarely buy them. could have a million and be blissfully happy.
5. that moment in a book where you have to finish, where you figure out the guts of it, where you discover what about the book will stay with you forever.
1. Sleep. But having a new baby can account for most of this. I keep telling my husband I want to go on a sleeping vacation--one where I can stay in bed and sleep and eat and read and write on my laptop. Heaven!
2. A little marshmallowy treat that only comes out at Easter called Chicks and Rabbits. They're kind of like Circus Peanuts and most people think they're awful. But I love them and could eat a whole bag in one sitting. But I don't. But I could.
3. Magazines. My Newsweek is late and I'm getting antsy. I also love my New Yorker.
4. Diet Coke. It's a bad habit.
5. Target. It calls to me. And now it's just 3 minutes away from my house. Problematic. I know you don't like to shop much, Darlene, so you probably don't undertsand :-).
6. Taking a walk w/ my husband and baby on a nice, cool evening and stopping to talk to neighbors along the way.
7. Smart, fun friends like you.
I could go on, but I'll stop here!
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